Dear all,
Thank you for some quite interesting emails on
Foucault.....I am glad to see the discussion pick up
again after a period of silence.
I am a rookie in my knowledge of Foucault, and that
not much better than my knowledge of Social Theory in
general.....an economist and lawyer by many years
training, I have been drilled to the bone in the
positivist tradition....so bear with me as you read
this email!
But anyway, I stumbled into Foucault a year and a half
ago exactly, as I was researching a problem in
International Economic Law. This problem revolves
around the intellectual property agreement of the
World Trade Organisation, the TRIPS Agreement (Trade
Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights),
which as you might have heard has been at the centre
of controversy over the patenting of HIV/AIDS
medicines and access to them by patients in the
developing world.
The way Foucault's work came to my attention in
addressinng this problem has to do with the way
powerful pharmaceutical multinationals presented
arguments that largely shaped the ensuing debate on
the topic - obviously to their favour (mainly economic
and jurisprudential arguments).
This - as I argue from my level of understanding of
FOucault - is one of the ways through which his work
can be applied to 'empirical' problems - even in the
unlikely arena of international regulation. As such,
in an attempt to build bridges between Foucault and
international law, I would like to get your feedback
on this usage...and equally important if you can
direct me to examples where Foucault's Power/Knowledge
analysis has been applied to recent and perhaps more
'mundane' studies...this of course as opposed to his
own studies on incarceration and sexuality, as well as
other similar and equally grand studies by Said on
Orientalism for example (although I figure Said would
refute the link to Foucault).
Looking forward to your feedback.
Have a good day,
Mohamed
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